That was the sentiment drawn from the team on Wednesday, one day after they put a whooping on the first-place Penguins, 5-0, and the same day they learned it is a very near certainty defenseman Dan Boyle will make his return to the lineup Thursday night in the Garden against the Avalanche.

“I think he’s going to play,” coach Alain Vigneault said after practice, his team having been without Boyle since he broke his right hand blocking a shot in the season opener Oct. 9 in St. Louis.

“I had a brief conversation with him this morning, and I asked him, ‘Am I playing you on the first power-play unit or am I easing you in?’ And he said, ‘First power-play unit,’” Vigneault said with enthusiasm. “So I’d say that’s sort of a sign that he’s ready to go.”

There are still conversations that need to be had with trainers and doctors after Thursday’s morning skate to make it official, but Boyle fully participated in Wednesday’s practice, paired with top-four lefty, Marc Staal. He took full-bore slap shots while working with that first power-play unit, he pulled some guys aside to do some battle drills along the wall, and halfway through he lost the brace on his hand, saying, “I’m not a big brace guy. I like to feel as normal and natural as possible.”

Thursday is the exact five-week mark since Boyle broke his hand, and the 38-year-old said doctors told him that is sufficient time for the bone to heal. Now it’s just a matter of playing through pain, which he was told could last “another month, month and a half.”

“We all play with pain,” Boyle said. “That’s just something I’m going to have to deal with.”

He is also going to have to deal with what it takes to mentally come back from an injury like this, as he took note of some of the comments made by young Bruins’ defenseman Torey Krug, who struggled in his return from a broken finger.

“Pretty much everything he said is pretty much everything I’m feeling,” Boyle said. “You kind of go out there and you’re thinking about it. Sometimes you do something differently to protect yourself that you wouldn’t normally do. Once you can stop thinking about it, you can play your game and things start coming back together. But it’s going to take a little bit.”

It almost will be a little strange for the Rangers (7-6-2) to have two defenseman in the lineup whose biggest attribute is moving the puck out of their zone to create offense. Along with John Moore, who made an impressive return on Tuesday after serving his five-game suspension, the Blueshirts are now a lot closer to the team they want to be.

“I think so much of our success is getting it to our forwards, early and quickly,” Moore said. “We get in trouble when we’re trying to beat guys one-on-one, or we’re not using the other guys on the ice. It’s no secret that one thing that has been stressed since Day 1 of training camp is get it to the forwards as quickly as you can.”

The hope for Vigneault is Boyle can help the power play, as well, which was 21st in the league at a 14.3 percent success rate before Wednesday. Boyle plays the role of the much-needed quarterback, and one that — with a healthy hand — has a big shot from the point.

“He should be ready to go,” Vigneault said, “and it should make us a better team.”